Gifts for Coffee Lovers Under $40, From First Brewer to Upgrade

The AeroPress is a plastic tube and plunger that sits on top of a mug. Coffee and hot water go in, steep briefly, and get pressed through a small paper filter into the cup. AeroPress describes it as part French press, part pour-over, part espresso: the body of a French press, the clean cup a paper filter gives, and the option of a short, strong concentrate to top up with water or milk. Brewing and cleaning take about two minutes, and the used grounds pop out in a puck.

It's the gift on this list that suits the widest range of people. It's hard to get a bad cup from it, it makes one or two cups at a time (10 ounces), it's 5.25 inches tall, and it's dishwasher safe on the top rack, so it travels well and fits in any kitchen. AeroPress includes paper micro-filters, a scoop and a stirrer, so it works out of the box with a kettle and ground coffee.

The catches: it's built for one or two cups, so it's the wrong gift for a household that drinks a full pot. The strong concentrate is espresso-style, not espresso: there's no machine pressure and no crema. And it uses AeroPress's own small round filters, so they'll eventually need more, which makes a pack of filters an easy add-on.

Pour-over is the method most coffee shops use for a single cup: hot water poured slowly over grounds in a paper cone, dripping into a server below. Hario's V60 is the dripper most of them use, a cone with spiral ridges inside and one large hole at the bottom, so the speed of the pour changes the cup. Pour quickly for a lighter cup, slowly for a heavier one.

The Starter Set is everything needed to begin in one box: the V60 02 dripper in plastic, a matching glass server that holds 700 milliliters, and 40 paper filters. The server is heatproof borosilicate glass that goes straight to the table, and the set is made in Japan. Size 02 makes one to four cups, the most common size.

The catches: pour-over rewards practice, and it's easiest with a kettle that has a thin spout (the Hario kettle at the end of this list is made for it). The dripper here is plastic; Hario's ceramic V60 02 lists under $40 on its own if they'd rather have the heavier, handmade version. And 40 filters last about six weeks of daily coffee, so they'll need a refill pack.

Ground coffee starts losing its aroma soon after it's ground, which is why coffee people grind right before they brew. For someone still buying pre-ground bags, a grinder changes the cup more than any brewer. The Mini-Slim+ is Hario's entry-level hand grinder: turn the crank on top, and ceramic conical burrs shave the beans into a clear container below.

Burrs are the reason to give a grinder like this instead of a cheap electric blade grinder. Blades smash beans into a mix of dust and chunks; burrs cut them to an even size, and an even size is what lets a brew taste balanced rather than both bitter and sour. The grind size adjusts, so it works for a French press, a pour-over or an AeroPress. Hario describes the + version as an upgrade on the original Mini-Slim, with a new handle and shaft coupling for better grip.

The catches: hand grinding takes effort, so it suits someone who makes one or two cups, not a pot for the house. The container holds 24 grams of ground coffee, about two cups' worth. It lists right at the top of this budget. And its body is mostly resin and plastic, made in China; Hario's steel-bodied grinders list well above $40.

Most insulated travel mugs make coffee taste faintly of metal and force you to drink through a small slot. Fellow's Carter Wide fixes both. The inside has a ceramic coating Fellow calls True Taste, so coffee touches ceramic rather than bare steel, and with the lid off it has a wide mouth and a thin lip like a regular mug, so you smell the coffee as you drink it.

Fellow rates it at 12 hours hot and 24 hours cold. The 12-ounce size holds a standard cup with room to carry it, and the wide mouth means a pour-over dripper or an AeroPress can brew straight into it. It comes in matte black, white, gray and blue, plus limited artist designs.

The catch Fellow states itself: it doesn't fit most car cup holders, because it's wide. That makes it a mug for the train, the office or a long morning at home more than for the drive. If they mostly drink in the car, look at Fellow's slimmer Carter Move and Carter Slide mugs instead.

Good beans from a local roaster lose their best flavor in the weeks after roasting, faster once the bag is open and air gets in. The Atmos is a canister with a vacuum pump built into its lid: put the lid on and twist it back and forth to pull the air out, and the seal holds until it's opened. Fellow says that keeps coffee fresh twice as long. It works for tea, nuts and other dry food too.

It's a good gift for someone who already buys whole beans and grinds them, because it's the piece of the routine they rarely buy themselves. The manual version needs no batteries or charging, just a few twists of the lid.

The catch is size. The 0.4-liter canister is the smallest of three; Fellow says the 1.2-liter one holds up to 16 ounces of light or medium roast, so this one holds about a third of that, roughly a week of coffee for one person. The larger manual sizes list under $40 too, but they showed as unavailable in most colors on Fellow's store when we checked. Fellow also sells an electric lid that pumps with a button, which lists well above this budget.

The thing that makes pour-over easier isn't the dripper, it's the kettle. A long, thin spout lets you pour a slow, steady stream and aim it, which a regular kettle's wide spout can't do. Hario's Drip Kettle AIR is a light, inexpensive way to get that spout: a small resin pitcher you fill with water from any kettle, then use to pour over the grounds.

It holds 350 milliliters, enough for one or two cups, and it's made of PCT resin in Japan, rated for water up to 212°F. That makes it light, so a full pour doesn't tire the wrist, and dishwasher safe. It pairs naturally with the V60 Starter Set above for a pour-over setup that stays well under a fancy gooseneck kettle's price.

The catches: it doesn't heat water. It goes nowhere near a stove, an oven, a microwave or a campfire; Hario is explicit about that. It's also plastic, so it doesn't hold heat the way a steel kettle does. For someone who already owns a gooseneck kettle, skip this one.